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A page from the first edition of Inspire, an online recruitment tool for jihadists that touts itself as the first magazine to be issued by al Qaeda in English. Al Qaeda in Yemen published a second edition of the magazine ... more >

Al Qaeda’s Inspire online magazine is calling on jihadis to damage the American economy by killing business leaders and entrepreneurs in their homes.

Articles in the May 14 edition, its 15th, also urge radical Islamic terrorists to emulate the Palestinian street-killings of Jews by walking up to Americans and stabbing them to death.

Inspire’s cover carries the headline “Professional Assassinations” and the subhead “Home Assassinations.” It depicts the dark profile of a hooded killer stalking a victim who lives in an upscale American home.

The kill list represents a different kind of target compared with the ultraviolent Islamic State, which has urged the killings of U.S. military personnel via assassination. Both Sunni extremist groups advocate mass killings.

The periodical is published by al Qaeda’s main affiliate, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), whose priority from its base in Yemen is to attack the U.S. homeland.

With Inspire, al Qaeda was the first Islamic terrorist group to exploit the Internet’s reach by publishing and distributing a sort of trade publication on the killing business. The Islamic State has taken use of the Internet to new heights with mass distribution of propaganda on social media and with terrorist communication hidden on encrypted apps. The Islamic State also sends out an online publication on savagery, called Dabiq.

The Middle East Media Research Institute quotes Inspire’s editor, Yahya Ibrahim: “The prophet ordered the killing of many criminal leaders using this method … And here we are, following the footsteps of the prophet on how he dealt with his enemies and friends.”

“We will never put down our weapons until we fulfill what Allah wants from us. We are determined to keep fighting and striking Americans with operations by organized jihadi groups and by Lone Jihad, [and] pursuing America in its homeland — by the will of Allah,” he is quoted as saying.

Said a MEMRI analysis: “The issue … provides detailed information and instructions on preparing for and carrying out various targeted assassinations. It stresses that an assassin should possess different options to carry out an attack, which gives him or her a greater chance for success, and elevates the operation to a more ‘professional’ level.”

Another magazine section is devoted to bomb-making, a AQAP specialty. The cell has been trying to develop bombs that a can defeat airport security screening.

There is a photo display of how to fit explosives inside a pipe joint and place it inside the cut-out of a book.

AQAP developed the “underwear bomb” carried by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on a flight to Detroit. Passengers subdued him as he attempted to ignite the plastic explosive on Christmas Day 2009.